Delightful Kiss
 

I guess I always wanted to title a thread "Delightful Kiss".

No, seriously, I liked this horse's 3rd in the TB Derby. The head-on replay showed that he ducked WAY out at the start, losing several lengths while trying to find the rest of the horses. After 1/4 mile Delightful Kiss was 9 lengths behind Any Given Saturday. At the end he was less than 6.5 lengths behind AGS. After spotting Street Sense a 6.5 length lead in that first quarter (much of it due to the start), Delightful Kiss kept pace for the rest of the race.

--Dunbar

I absolutely adored this horse... I'm glad someone else liked him too.

Methinks he merely sucked up for third.

Did you watch the head on replay of the start, BTWind? The horse looked like it had a meeting it was trying to make near the outside rail.

--Dunbar

I just watched the replay again at:

http://tampabaydowns.com/DailyReplays.aspx (choose 3/17, race 12)

It's almost comical watching Delightful Kiss zigzaggin at the start. From post 7 he gets out to post 11 before the rider cuts him back toward the inside rail. When he makes that cut, he looks like a rodeo horse chasing down an errant calf. (Only the head-on view shows how far he ducked out.)

Going 5-wide on the 2nd turn didn't help any, either.

--Dunbar

The head on replay was comical.

While not a horse that is going to make anyones list of Derby horses, I am keeping this horse on my radar as I think he has shown noticeable improvement since adding lasix and going back to dirt. I think he is a little undervalued right now and could be the type that clunks up into the tri or super at a price.

If I can toot my own horn for a second, I keyed him third in the Tampa bay derby using Street Sense / Any Given Sat / Delightful Kiss / with three horses for fourth in the super. Not a huge payout but since my ticket was basically a $3 play it wasn't bad.

"losing several lengths while trying to find the rest of the horses."



This is a very bad sign.

LOL

I just watched it again and he did look very confused as to which way he needed to run. I wonder how he would have done had he broken normally?

Breaking "normally" for him is still sort of slow. But I think his zigzag cost him at least 3 lengths, Cajun. He was 13 lengths behind after a first quarter run in 23:50! Give him another length for taking the 2nd turn 5-wide, and that puts him within a couple of lengths of Street Sense and AGS.

I'm looking forward to his next race.

"wasn't bad" is an understatement. Nice work, Jim.

--Dunbar

He was actually finishing signing one last autograph when the gates opened and had to run back to the rail: "here kid, take this, I gotta go.."

Maybe that's why they had him break as they did.

I am leery of looking at him as a bet back. Supposedly there was a strong head wind on the back and strong tail wind on the home stretch. This favors closers. His closing run may have been a bit wind aided, passing several tired horses in the stretch who may have been working harder against the wind on the back stretch.

I dont know about SS and Any Saturday, I assume they were working very hard vis a vis one another so this may have helped Kiss suck up...

Hard to factor, I'm just a little skeptical. Others like.

This is only a test.



No one will be vaporized.

Methinks you were right and I was wrong.

--Dunbar

Got your picture, but it's on my phone. Batteries died in the camera. I think it's a decent shot of him... I can either send it to your phone or you can wait on me to figure out how to get it to my pc.